Centrifugal machine



Jan. 30, 1951 K. CLARK ET AL CENTRIFUGAL MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS AQMc/ C/ark John W. Dl'efz BY Hare/a1 E. MM/

Filed Aug. 26, 1944 Jan. 30, 1951 Filed Aug. 26, 1944 K. CLARK ET AL CENTRIFUGAL MACHINE III 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jan. 30, 1951 K. CLARK ET AL CENTRIFUGAL MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS Kendall n W Dlel'z GPO/d 5 Wallis Filed Aug. 26, 1944 Patented Jan. 30, 1951 CENTRIFUGAL MACHINE Kendall Clark and John W. Dietz, Oakwood, and Harold B. Wallis, Dayton, Ohio, assignors to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a

corporation of Delaware Application August 26, 1944, Serial No. 551,362 3 Claims. (01. 248-21) This invention relates to a domestic appliance and more particularly to centrifugal machines.

- The difficulty of providing satisfactory supporting arrangements for the moving parts of high speed centrifugal machines is illustrated by the many different arrangements disclosed in the prior art. This problem is made particularly difficult where it is desired to centrifuge materials which do not readily distribute themselves uniformly within the centrifuging container.

It is an object of our invention to provide an improved simplified inexpensive and durable supporting arrangement for the moving parts of centrifugal machines which will allow the moving parts to rotate substantially on their center of mass when the machine operates substantially at full speed and which will allow the machine to start and reach full speed with a minimum of vibration.

It is another object of our invention to provide an arrangement for supporting the moving parts of centrifugal machines upon a universal type support and for providing a friction device for smoothly damping the gyratory motion of the moving parts upon the universal type support.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings: 7

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional View through a centrifugal type of washing machine embodying one form of our invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view illustrating the universal mounting and the friction device in greater detail, taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the lines 3-3 of Figs. 1 and 2.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Fig. 1, there is shown for the purpose of illustrating one form of centrifugal machine a centrifugal washing machine. This washing machine is provided with a cabinet 26 which serves as a frame. This cabinet is provided with a transverse supporting member 22 which also serves as a drain pan to collect the liquid which is centrifuged out of the centrifuging container or basket 24. As is better shown in Fig. 2 this transverse supporting member 22 supports a universalmounting 26 which includes a rubber member 28 provided with a steel plate 30 at its lower end, a metal ring 32 at an intermediate point and a meta1 cap 34 at its upper end.

This rubber member 26 forms a universal type support which supports a major part of the weight of the moving parts of the washing machine. The moving parts of the washing machine include a mechanism housing 36, below which is a motor housing 38 and a pump and fan housing 46 connected rigidly together. The moving parts above the universal supports 26 include the centrifuging container 24 and a balancing wheel 42. The balancing wheel 42 is supported upon a rubber ring 46 which in turn rests upon the flange of a bell-shaped metal member 48 connected at its upper end to a hub 44. The centrifuging container or basket 24 includes an inner receptacle 5!] having in-turned upper edges and provided with holes in its lower portion for allowing liquid to fiow from within into the flared flume 52 which surrounds the inner container 50. container 56 and the surrounding flume 52 are fastened together at their bottom portions and an extension of the fiume is fastened to the hub 44. The hub 44 is mounted upon an outer sleeve 54 extending down into the mechanism housing 36.

Within the inner container 56 there is provided a bell-shaped agitator 56 which is threaded upon the upper end of a hollow shaft 58 extending downwardlythrough the hub 44 within the outer sleeve 54 to the interior of the mechanism housing 36. The opening in the inner container receiving the hollow shaft 58 is sealed by a bellows 60 formed of a rubber-like material. Within the motor housing 38 is an electric motor having its stator 62 supported by the walls of the motor housing 38 and its rotor 64 mounted upon the vertical shaft 66. This electric motor drives mechanism within the housing 36 by which the bell-shaped agitator 56 may be reciprocated to agitate the clothes and washing solution within the centrifuging container 24 while the outer sleeve 54 and the centrifuge container are held stationary.

This type of agitation has the advantage of requiringa smaller amount of washing liquid than many other types of agitating arrangements and, in addition, keeps the clothes in the washing solution more uniformly distributed. The motor housing 38 is provided with a solenoid 68 which at the completion of the agitation, shifts the clutch mechanism within the housings 36 and 38 so that both the outer sleeve 54 and the hollow shaft 58 are coupled to the shaft 66 for rotating the centrifuging container 24. Instead of employing the solenoid 68 the motor may be reversed and a mechanism such as is shown in The inner the Clark Patent No. 2,346,152, may be accomplished to shift the clutching mechanism within the housing 36. The mechanism within the housing 36 for converting the rotary movement of the shaft 66 to the reciprocating movement of the hollow shaft 58 may be like that shown in the above mentioned patent or any other con,- venient arrangement for converting the rotary motion to reciprocating motion.

Below the rotor 64 the shaft 66 is supported by a ball bearing and surrounding this hearing is a centrifugal fan 70 which circulates cooling air through the motor housing 38., for cooling the rotor and stator. Below the fan is the pump. housing 40 which is connected directly to the bottom of the motor housing 38. This pump housing 40 contains a centrifugal impeller 12 for pumping the water out of the collectin basin into a place of disposal. A suitable shaft seal at the lower end of the shaft 66 seals the pump housing 40.

While the type of agitation used in the centrifugal container aids materially in obtaining a reasonably uniform distribution of the clothes within the centrifuging container 24 it naturally cannot be expected to distribute them perfectly and therefore the moving parts can be expected to gyrate upon the universal support 26. While theoretically it would be desirable to allow the movable assembly to gyrate quite freely, it is necessary to prevent excessively large gyrations. It is also desirable to provide means for smoothly damping vibrations. According to our invention at the bottom of the pump housing 40 we provide a drip shield M which overlies a circular steel plate 16 fastened along with the pump housing to the bottom of the motor housing 38 by the long screws l8. Preferably the surface of this plate is provided with a finish which will prevent its rusting, such as a form-manganese phosphate coating, or chrome plating.

Held in contact with the bottom surface of this steel plate '16 is a small circular snubber plate 80 composed of a friction pad of sintercd porous bronze containing 6% or more graphite, preferably bonded directly to a small steel disc. This assembly is connected by a rivet 82 to a pair of crossed semi-elliptic springs 84 and 86 which are supported by the transverse cross member 88 extending from one corner of the cabinet wall to the opposite corner. The flanges 96 extending around the inside of the skirt of the cabinet walls serve as the support for the ends of the cross member .88. The cross member 88 is provided with pins 92 and 94 which are received in apertures at one end of .eaoh of the springs 84 and 8B.

The springs 84 and 8 6 are of such dimensions and are provided with such a tension that they provide a spring pressure of between 70 and 80 lbs. forcing the snubber 89 against the plate 16 when the centrifuging container is not filled. Since the rubber material and the universal support 26 yields when the centrifuging container is filled with water, the entire movable assembly including the steel disc 16 will move downwardly to compress the springs 84 and 86 so that the contact pressure is increased to about 90 to 100 lbs., under such conditions. In this way the contact pressure between the friction surface is increased as the load in the container is increased. This combination of spring force and friction materials provides a very smooth frictional damping of the yraztions of the movable assembly which allows the assembly to gyrate with considerable fr edom .so that only .a relatively small proportion of the vibration is transmitted to the cabinet and yet the gyrations are sufiiciently limited to prevent undue stress upon the universal support 26 preventing the assembly from striking portions of the cabinet. The frictiona1 surface in addition to limiting the gyrations of the assembly also serve, to dampen other vibrations.

While porous graphited bronze is preferred for the snubber friction pad, porous sintered iron containing an equivalent amount of graphite or suitably impregnated felt or cotton Webbing may be used. The shield '14 covers the plate 16 and its rim extends over and below the periphery of the plate 76 so that any water or liquid or any foreign matter is prevented from dripping onto the friction surface and distributing their friction characteristics. The rim of the shield 74 also prevents the snubber from sliding off the steel plate 76 and thus positively limits the gymtions. The graphite in the friction pad provides a substantially constant and yet limited amount of lubrication between the surfaces providing a smooth yet adequate damping effect. Through all these means vibrations of the machine is kept at a low level so that it is unnecessary that the cabinet be bolted down or rigidly fastened to the floor.

While the form of embodiment of the inven: t n as her in disclosed, c nst tut s a pr fer. .d form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A centrifugal machine including a frame, a movable assembly comprising a vertical basket and driving means located below said basket for rotating said basket, said frame being provided with resilient supporting means below said basket for supporting the driving means at its upper portion, said driving means being provided with a first friction surface adjacent its lower portion, said frame being provided with a second friction surface in contact with said first friction surface being positioned substantially in a horizontal plane, said friction surfaces being relatively Slideable, and a shield extending over said first frictionally surface and having a downwardly turned rim extending below and surrounding the con tacting surfaces for limiting their relative sliding movement.

2. A centrifugal machine including supporting means, a movable assembly comprising a vertical centrifuging container and a driving means cont nected to and located below the container, a universal type support connecting the driving means and the supporting means, said driving means and said supporting means being provided with complementary relatively slidable friction sur faces located at a distance from said universal type support and a shield extending over said friction surfaces and having a downwardly turned rim extendin below and surrounding the contacting surfaces for limiting their relative-move, ment.

3. A centrifugal machine including a frame, a movable assembly comprising a vertical basket and driving means located below said basket for rotating said basket, said frame being provided with yielding resilient supporting means below said basket for supporting the driving means at its upper portion, said frame being provided with a second supporting means below said driving means for said assembly, the bottom of said as sembly being provided with a first friction sur -15 face, a member provided with a complementary 5 friction surface slidable relative to said first friction surface, a laterally stable spring means having a predetermined spring rate extending under tension between said second supporting means and said member to keep the friction surfaces in contact with a force which varies with the tension of said spring means, said yielding resilient supporting means being deflected in accordance with the gross mass of the assembly to deflect said spring means to change the tension thereof and the contact force upon the friction surfaces in accordance with the gross mass of the assembly.

KENDALL CLARK.

JOHN W. DIETZ.

HAROLD B. WALLIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 125,036 Fesca Mar. 26, 1872 476,979 Cairns June 14, 1892 1,734,596 Rosenzweig Nov. 5, 1929 1,896,466 Schaum Feb. 7, 1933 2,317,501 Tyler Apr. 27, 1943 2,361,266 Clark Oct. 24, 1944 2,366,236 Clark Jan. 2, 1945 2,377,492 Gorton June 5, 1945 2,414,506 Bowen Jan. 21, 1947 

